Almost
by Arianrhod Whisper L' amour
Summary: Hiashi calls on his daughter to tell her that she must marry someone of his choosing. Hinata, not knowing what else to do, decides suicide is her only option. Rated for dark thoughts and attempted suicide. Hints of Naruhina.


A/n: I guess you could say I'm on a role tonight. Second posting in one night. This isn;t exactly high quality work, but for three thirty in the morning I'm saying it's good.

This is rated for dark thoughts and suicide attepmts.

I do not own Naruto, nor have I ever claimed to. No personal gain was made off of this story. Other than that little happy feeling I get when someone tells me they liked it. SO MAKE ME HAPPY AND REVIEW!

Hinata sat in her room alone, thinking of what her father had just said to her

Hinata sat in her room alone, thinking of what her father had just said to her. He had seemed to want something when he called her into his dark and dusty study. She sighed, and want something he most definitly had.

_"Hinata, sit down." Hiashi had said in an impassive voice. She had sat, because he said so. And being the obediant seventeen year old she had been raised as she couldn't do anything else. Hiashi had a strange look on his face. One she had never seen before._

_"What do you wish to speak to me of?" she said, trying to sound polite and formal even though she really wanted to be somewhere else right now._

_"Well, Hinata, you are growing up. And, however much of a failure to this clan you may be you will still be leading it one day. Or, more correctly, your husband will." Hiashi was speaking slowly, choosing his words carefully. He wasn't quite sure how you told your daughter you were going to marry her off. He decided to do it with the least amount of emotion possible._

_"Yes, father. I know." Hinata said when he paused._

_Hiashi nodded. "Yes, you know your duty. Now, as you are nearly of age I have decided it is time to find you a suitable husband."_

_Hinata gasped. She almost said something, but but her tongue. It would not do to offend her father._

_"I have some suitable men lined up who would be good candidates. You will be meeting them tomorrow. You may go." Hiashi said this with such little emotion it almost made Hinata break down into sobs. Even though she was used to him speaking to her that way, this seemed much worse._

Hinata sighed. She was trying her best to fight back the tears. But at this point they were completely ignoring her protests and began to flow down her cheeks in rivers. She threw herself down onto her bed and buried her face in the pillow.

Hinata had no idea how long she cried for, but when she sat up she had one of those splitting headaches one only gets after a long cry. Her face was red and as she saw her reflection in the window she nearly burst into tears again.

The sky outside was a cheerful blue. There were birds chirping and slying from tree to tree. She watched to chickadees that seemed to be flirting and dancing around each other midair. The hot stickiness of a summer afternoon was floating all around. She glared at all of it. The sun and perfect sky that seemed to be mocking her with their happiness. The stupid birds who were acting so childishly.

Her father had said she would meet them tomorrow. She cried again. She didn't want to marry someone she barely knew. She didn't want to get married to someone her father chose for her. She wanted to be twelve again. She threw herself back into the pillow. There was no way out of this. She searched her head as she cried until she didn't have anymore tears left to cry. And then her sobs turned dry and she started coughing and couldn't stop. But of course there was no one there to hold her and make sure she was okay.

When she finally got herself under a slight more bit of control she knew there was only one way out of this now. She stood up from her bed and walked over to her dresser. On top of it was a set of kunai she had recieved from Naruto for her last birthday. The two of them had gotten very close and she had never used them. She didn;t want to taint such a precious gift with blood. She smiled and picked one of them up. "They will be tainted now." She whispered, raising it to her wrist.

The first touch was cold. She sobbed again and pushed down a bit. The blade was sharp and as it bit through her skin with an ice that she had never felt before the door to her room opened. She barely had any reaction to this, until she saw who it was. It was Neji, and he was panting slightly.

"Nii-san!" Hinata said, looking at him fully.

"Hinata-chan! What are you doing!?" Neji said, coming over with the blinding speed only a ninja could possess. He pulled the kunai from her hand and set it on her dresser before quickly unwrapping one of his wrists and rewrapping the cloth strip as tightly as he could around her slit wrist.

Hinata then appeared to find a fresh source of water in her body because she started to cry once more. "Nii-san, I don't want to get married!" she cired, launching herself at the slightly older boy. "He said I have to! He said it was my duty, and—" she stopped when the sobbing into Neji's shirt and talking at the same time became too much for her.

Neji pried her away from him. "It's all right Hinata. Naruto went to speak to Hiashi-sama. He won't let you be married." He smiled reassuringly. "And I'll be here to protect you as well. I don't think it is your destiny, being married to any of the men your father thinks would do well as your husband. They are mostly horrible and much older than anyone you ought to be marrying."

Hinata looked at her cousin in shock. "Neji..." she whispered. And then she was hugging him and crying again. "Thank you! Where's Naruto? I want to tell him thank you! And... I was going to kill myself... And..." she stopped and just cried. She was so thankful to have such amazing friends. It was the best feeling to know they would always be there for her.

Years later Hinata would contemplate what she had almost done. As she held the baby daughter of her Naruto in her arms she would smile and think _'If I had just pushed a little harder I wouldn't have had such a wonderful baby girl to watch over every day.'_ And as she watched her second son graduate from the Ninja Academy she smiled and thought _'Thank you, whoever you are up there, for sending me Naruto and Neji to save me from what I almost did.'_


End file.
